Gooding will talk about the film chronicling the story of the pioneering Tuskegee Airmen on the AOPA Live stage in the exhibit hall at 11:45 a.m. He also will visit with the Commemorative Air Force’s Red Tail Squadron at 1:30 p.m. at Airportfest at Hartford-Brainard Airport, by the CAF’s P-51C Mustang—painted with the distinctive red tail of the Tuskegee Airmen.

Both the CAF Red Tail Squadron’s traveling exhibit and the action epic Red Tails, set to premiere in January 2012, tell the story of how the Tuskegee Airmen rose above racial prejudice and adversity to become the first African-American pilots to serve in the U.S. Army Air Corps (now the U.S. Air Force) during World War II. Gooding, whose credits include his Oscar-winning role in Jerry Maguire as well as roles in As Good as It Gets, What Dreams May Come, and the Oscar-nominated A Few Good Men, also portrayed one of the ground-breaking aviators in the Emmy-nominated 1995 PBS documentary drama The Tuskegee Airmen.

Red Tails, from Executive Producer George Lucas, is directed by Anthony Hemingway and will launch Jan. 20. Gooding stars in the role of Major Emanuelle Stance.